In a recent interview with WRIF 101.1, ALICE COOPER guitarist Nita Strauss was asked if she feels like she has to prove herself every time she takes the stage.
She replied (as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net):
“I feel like that every single time, yeah, of course. A little less lately. It was interesting, growing up, being a female guitar player…
“I try not to harp too much on the male-female thing, but it is true that there’s a different level of expectation for a female guitar player.
“If there’s a guy that’s in a band, a regular band of all dudes gets up on stage, no one looks at the guitar player and goes, ‘Oh, that guy’s not gonna be any good.’ It just doesn’t happen. But that happened to me for so many years.
“And literally up until as recently as last month, when I was on tour with Alice Cooper, I was signing autographs for fans after the show by the tour bus, and somebody said, ‘My friends all said that wasn’t really you playing guitar up there. Was it really you?’
“I was like, ‘I just did a five-minute guitar solo. How could I fake that?’ There’s nobody in the world that’s good enough to mime that in front of that many people – it’s not doable.
“So it has been a long road, a long proving ground, but I’m happy to say now that it happens a lot less. And now I’m more focused on proving the people that supported me all these years right rather than proving all the doubters wrong.”
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